Musical Difficulty Quotes

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.

When The Who first started, we were playing blues, and I dug the blues and I knew what I was supposed to be playing, but I couldn't play it. I couldn't get it out. I knew what I had to play; it was in my head. I could hear the notes in my head, but I couldn't get them out on the guitar.

Maybe it is true what they say, that playing these Chuck Berry songs is easy. But try singing them. The words come out hard, like bullets.

The most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra is second fiddle.

Mozart is always a bit of a challenge - you know, even though it is often given to very young singers, it is actually the most complicated to sing in many instances.

But anyone who's done a musical knows; whether you're dancing or not, physically it's the most difficult thing you can do.

The composer Stravinsky had written a new piece with a difficult violin passage. After it had been in rehearsal for several weeks, the solo violinist came to Stravinsky and said he was sorry, he had tried his best, the passage was too difficult, no violinist could play it. Stravinsky said, 'I understand that. What I am after is the sound of someone trying to play it.'

Sometimes the simplest forms of music are the hardest to play. Especially for musicians that are accomplished.

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.

Writing songs, especially with the instrumental stuff, it's difficult.

People think that singing and playing is easy. It's not. It's easy to strum along, but if you actually want to really play, where it's important, that's a hard thing and not too many people are good at it.

Playing octaves was just a coincidence. And it's still such a challenge, like chord versions, block chords like cats play on piano. There are a lot of things that can be done with it, but each is a field of its own. I used to have headaches every time I played octaves, because it was extra strain, but the minute I'd quit I'd be all right. But now I don't have headaches when I play octaves.

When I'm writing for certain instruments, you want to write within what you know about that instrument but also challenge the player. Something like 'Aheym' is very virtuosic - but because I have a history of performing music, I don't like unplayable music.

When I became a 'rock musician,' I assumed pop music was easy to write and that interesting rock music, or alternative music, was hard. It was only later I realised that writing a pop song is the hardest thing musically.

The better the orchestra, often the harder it is to conduct, not the other way around.

The sonatas of Mozart are unique; they are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

The songs were really complicated. I used to meet people in bar bands who were trying to play our songs and they were really struggling with it. Technically it was really difficult stuff.

It seemed like the more complex the music we were playing, the less able we were to guarantee its consistency.

Especially in repetitive music, to make a long piece of music you have to be extremely skilled in your sleight of hand. Just to make long form music it's very difficult and you really have to consider what you're putting someone through.

The simplest things in music are the ones that count. The simplest thing are, of course, also the most difficult to achieve and take years of work.

I never want to pick an easy song. I want to continue to challenge myself vocally.

I remember sobbing myself to sleep because I couldn't play an open G chord.

I came from a Conservatoire background where the idea of complexity was very much bound up with good music - good music was seen as complex and difficult to understand.

People think the chorus is the hard part in 'Take on Me,' but they're wrong. The hard part was making the verses bounce.